Thursday, December 8, 2011

Battlefield 3 review

Campaign: some spoilers within
Pros: Electronic Arts has pushed the envelope with graphics in the campaign mode. The lighting is amazing, everything looks very realistic. I myself thought I was watching a cut scene on occasion when I was actually playing the game. The AI is definitely a challenge. They are fast and seem to actually think on occasion. I enjoyed the story line to a degree, on some of the levels the sense of urgency actually made it feel like you needed to sprint through the level to complete the task at hand. The number of weapons and options are fantastic, plus the Frost engine makes for some great firefights.
Cons: now this is where EA failed. Unfortunately every pro has a con. While the graphics and lighting was fantastic, on a lot of the levels the sun glare literally blinds you making it hard or impossible to see the enemy directly in front of you. The AI is the best shots I have ever seen in a video game, they barely miss and when firing full auto they seem to hit you more than miss. The guns in the game have too much kick. We could argue all day long on the realism here, but at the end of the day it is a game, if I want to shoot full auto with a gun I should at least be able to hit my intended target. The kick in this game makes your gun bounce like you’re in a jumpy house. The story line is the same recycled story line used by many games these days. A group of miss understood soldiers have Intel no one else has on a set of nuclear devices. They must stop the evil terrorist before he can detonate them while being hunted by their own country. While this makes for a compelling story line it is so over used. I was really hoping EA would come up with a new idea.

Multiplayer:
Let’s face it; this is what most FPS players care about in this day and age. Many gamers don’t even bother with the campaign modes and jump straight into multiplayer.
Pros: The levels are massive; you can do real sniping in Battlefield 3, no matter how hard you try to snipe in other games the maps aren’t really designed to let a sniper really snipe. This is not the case in Battlefield 3 sniping feels correct in this game. Vehicles are great; there is nothing more fun than riding the rail of a little bird watching tanks roll up below you and jets flying overhead. Some of the rewards for leveling a class are really cool. I for instance like to be an engineer; I was really excited to use the EOD robot especially in rush. Rush is a very fun game mode, I prefer to be the attacker, but defending can be just as fun especially when you are on a good team. The frostbite engine is great, I love watching buildings explode or fall apart. It feels good to shoot a RPG at a wall and create a whole to run through.
Cons: I really wonder how EA did their match making systems team balancing; the teams always seem to be very disproportionate. You are either stomping your enemy into the dust, or being stomped. This issue with a set location for spawning creates one of the worst spawn camping scenarios I have ever seen. It involved an attack helicopter, tank, and LAV plus everyone else from the other team on foot surrounding the spawn point and killing everyone every time they spawned. Talk about frustrating. The levels are massive, this means die and you have a long run ahead of you if there is no one to spawn on. A lot of the times the vehicles will be gone during regular play leaving you to run across the map on foot only to die again. The air vehicles have a huge learning curve; the controls on a helicopter have to be the hardest thing I have ever used. Also EA please don’t make a game where I throttle with L2, fire my weapon with L1, steer the vehicle with the left stick, and turn the turret with the right. I think the fire button should have been R1. Lighting in multiplayer is just like campaign many times you can’t even see your opponent. Leveling the engineer can be hard especially on rush gameplay since it usually doesn’t involve vehicles. Ooh and why can’t I exit a lobby while I am waiting for the next round to start? This is the silliest thing I have ever saw.
In conclusion: despite Battlefield 3’s issue’s it is still a fun game. The game play and game style is just different enough from games like Call of Duty to make it stand out. I really enjoy blowing up the buildings, and making it so the enemy can’t hide from me. But please EA my worst experience with this game is the matchmaking systems team balancing. If this was corrected you would have a sure fire classic on your hands.

1 comment:

1st the spawn camping (home base), I think (compared to previous installments) isn't that bad, BF2 and 2142 both had it so the enemy could literally be right inside your home base, atleast in this version there is a zone of auto death surrounding your base (excluding those in flying vehicles).

2nd, the match making. I personally disagree with the idea of randomizing teams, games I have played where this was done would often result in you playing on a different team than your friends. I do agree though that more balanced teams would equal more fun for all and longer rounds(plus in my book just because some ribbons are so hard to get, looking at you suppression ribbon). I think it is getting better as the game ages and more people know what to do.

3rd The guns. They sure shoot straight for me, I enjoy having to fight the recoil rather than have the gun sit nice and still while the rounds shoot off and odd and unpredictable angles.

I do agree with almost everything else, the vehicle controls are wonky especially when you switch from driving to flying( why are my fire buttons switched? ) and the nuke plots are getting ridiculous.

I enjoy your site and wow that jet clip you posted was amazing, I consider myself an ace fighter pilot but wow, that guy is insane, combination of the Red Baron and Evil Knievel.